1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to the structure of a USB female connector and, in particular, to the structure of a rotatable USB female connector.
2. Related Art
Advances in computer technology have made human life much easier. Many computer-related products, such as electronic dictionaries, digital cameras, mobile phones with cameras, and card readers, are very popular in daily life. Due to their limitation in storage capacity, they are often connected to a computer for data transfer between the products and the computer. These data transfers are usually done via USB, infrared, Bluetooth, or network means.
Universal serial bus (USB) is a data transmission standard set by IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, Compaq, DEC, and Northern Telecom for connections between devices with USB connectors, such as pen drives, removable hard drives, digital cameras, mice, keyboards, scanners, and printers. The USB interface has many advantages, such as high speeds, easy connections, plug-and-play (PnP) possible, no need for any external power, supporting many devices, and highly compatible. Therefore, the USB has become a standard port on personal computers.
For the convenience of carrying data, a portable removable disk, called the pen drive, with a smaller volume but larger storage capacity is invented. This kind of pen drives is not portable and small in size, and has the USB interface. It can be plugged and played without any self-supplying power source. It can be used as a means for transmissions between a computer and computer-related products. Since, the pen drive has the characteristics of high transmission speeds and stability, the user therefore does not need to carry a large-volume electronic device. Due to its large memory space, it can be conveniently used as a storage device. In comparison with the conventional hard disk drive, the pen drive is stronger in structure and less fragile. Therefore, using the pen drive as a means for data storage and transmissions can reduce the risk of loss or damages.
Since almost all the current electronic products use the USB as the interface with the computer, the computer mainframe is often equipped with USB female connectors. An example of the conventional USB female connector is shown in FIG. 1A. In general, the notebook case 10 is usually provided with a USB female connector 60 for computer-related products, such as the pen drive 72 to connect. After a USB male connector 70 is plugged into the USB female connector 60, data can be transmitted. In order to win more consumers, the manufacturers often change the appearance of the pen drive 72. Although this can attract some consumers, thick pen drives 72 are likely to encounter some problem in use. Suppose the height from the lower edge of the USB make connector 70 to the lower edge of the case of the pen drive 72 is H and the height from the lower edge of the USB female connector 60 to the lower edge of the computer case 10 is h. If H is greater than h, then when the pen drive 72 is plugged into the USB female connector 60 on the notebook computer case 10, the computer case 10 is pushed up, resulting in inconvenience in use.
Please refer to FIG. 1B for an application of the conventional USB female connector. Some notebook computers have two USB female connectors 60. Since the notebook computers are designed to be more compact, the two USB female connectors 60 are often disposed very close to each other in order to save space. In this case, as one pen drive 72 is inserted into one of the USB female connector 60, only the other USB female connector 60 is left for another pen drive 74. If the widths of the two pen drives 72, 74 are too large, then the second pen drive 74 cannot be inserted into the USB female connector 60, as shown in the drawing. It is thus meaningless to have two USB female connectors 60 on the notebook computer.
The conventional pen drive or card reader with the USB interface is not provided with a rotatable USB male connector. R.O.C. Pat. No. M249179 discloses a portable storage device with a rotatable connector. The device includes a case whose front end is formed with a hole and an electrically connected rotator disposed inside the case hole, the electrically connected rotator using two relatively rotating connecting pieces to transmit electrical signals; an electronic storage device disposed inside the case, the electronic storage device being electrically coupled to one of the connecting pieces of the electrically connected rotator; an electrical connector disposed on the connecting piece opposite to the electrically connector rotator so that the electrical connector and the electronic storage device exchange electrical signals via the electrically connector rotator. This enables the electrical connector to rotate. The design of a rotatable USB male connector is for the convenience of inserting the device into a computer or other related peripheral equipment with a USB female connector. However, the electronic device with a rotatable USB male connector is more expensive. Even though there are other more compact pen drives on the market, it is impractical for users who already have pen drives with larger sizes to purchase compact pen drives simply for fitting the USB female connectors. If the orientation of the USB female connector can be changed, the development of pen drives will be greatly advanced and the users will be less restricted by the inconvenience.